A fortnight of feverish “innuendos, half-truths and motivated leaks“—of corruption, collusion, conflict of interest, tax evasion, shady franchise ownership, fixed auctions, patronage, nepotism, sex, sleaze, drugs etc—has ended with the summary suspension of Lalit Modi as the commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) without giving him a chance to answer the charges.

The board of control for cricket in India (BCCI) waited for the last ball to be bowled in the third edition of the IPL before making its move, and did so just before the governing council of the IPL, a league which Modi created for the BCCI to applause all round, was to meet in Bombay.

Modi is the second victim of the storm he whipped up through a tweet, after minister Shashi Tharoor, who paid the price for mentoring the Cochin franchise a little too personally.

The BCCI has appointed a new commissioner, the very men who were singing in Modi’s praise are now slamming him, and there is now talk that Modi will be charged on “five counts“, including his “behavioural pattern“. The cycle of events reeks of deja vu, a similar drama having been played out to get rid of Jagmohan Dalmiya not too long ago.

Questions: Is the BCCI sincere in its clean-up, or this is just a cover-up to evade government action? Is Modi alone to blame for all the ills he has been accused of, or is he a fall guy, a scapegoat meant to sate the bloodthirst of the lynch mob? Are Tharoor and Modi alone guilty of misdeamanour, or are there more?

8 comments

Really,just think. How many times have we had scams like this? Beginning with Mundra, Morarji Desai; son, T,T,Krishnamachari, and recent case of Harshad Mehta….. has anybody ever been punished? The only difference is that we have 24X7 news channels who need to put something, anything on the aer.

Even the actors involved in the sordid and shameful IPL drama, and that is the group of men and women who used Modi as their frontman for 3 long years, to help themselves with the spoils, even while they who have now ganged up against him, have no credibility if they now say they are on a clean up drive. And they are not saying so themselves, that this is their objective, either! Why accuse them of such good intention?

It’s interesting to know that there are 12 other member in IPL governing Council, who are well known public and political personalities. till this alleged scandal broke out, none of them spoke about it and nobody tried to control Modi’s misdemeanour. This does indicate there irresponbilities or as usual are they also part of this big thamasha and now trying wash out there hands by targeting Modi.

BCCI needs a huge clean up. The way they are now claiming everything was done by Modi and Modi has all the documents is a clear indication that they are making Modi a fall guy and covering up everything.

BCCI is a society thus a private entity, registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. It is effectively a Private Club, to which no one can enter (even with excellent credentials), unless admitted by those who are already controlling it.

And thus, it has become a Feudal setup. Having tax exemptions and most expensive real-estate in all cities given to it on a platter for nominal rent, it has unbelievable amounts of money which doesn’t have to be accounted for at all!!

It’s incomes are IT exempt, it doesn’t come under companies act, thus is not required the same level of scrutiny as private Companies in India, but it most probably is one of the top 20 companies in India. Since it doesn’t come under companies act, it also doesn’t come under Monopolies restriction, thus resorts to uncontrolled monopolistic Practices (eg. Crushing of ICL).

There is absolutely no justification for keeping BCCI a private club anymore. Govt. should abolish BCCI, and bring in a Sports Comission, that’ll regulate Cricket in India, by transparently auctioning the sporting activities to Private interests (just as Spectrum is auctioned to Phone companies).

The proceeds of such auction will go to exchequer and the companies winning contracts, will be subject to company law.